


Don't Say Yes (Run Away Now)

by markijack



Category: Video Blogging RPF, jacksepticeye
Genre: (specifically Chase and Stacy), Based on a Taylor Swift Song, F/M, M/M, Pining, Unhealthy Relationships, speak now au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-18
Updated: 2019-02-18
Packaged: 2019-10-30 15:15:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17831033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/markijack/pseuds/markijack
Summary: "I hear the preacher say 'speak now or forever hold your peace.' There's a silence, there's my last chance, I stand up with shaking hands, all eyes on me..." - Taylor Swift, "Speak Now"





	Don't Say Yes (Run Away Now)

“Oh my god. Oh my god, I’m gonna fall. Or puke.”

“No you aren’t.”

“You’re right. I’m gonna fall _and_ puke. Which should I do first? Fall, right? If I’m on the ground, maybe less people will notice when I puke.”

“I will make you a deal: hold onto my arm. If I let you fall, you have my full permission to puke.” He was supposed to walk just behind Chase anyway; who would really notice or care if they went side by side? He offers his arm and Chase links his own without hesitation. “I feel like I am giving you away.”

“What?”

“Um, because we are standing like this. It is like I am a parent, giving you away.”

“Oh.”

He changes the subject quickly. “Are you alright? Being in front of people doesn’t usually bother you this much. You are not nervous, are you?”

“Yeah, I’m nervous. I’m _very_ nervous. Is that bad?”

“No, I am sure you are fine. It is normal - remember what a wreck I was before my wedding?”

“Henrik, your marriage lasted seven months.”

“Yes, well, my point still stands.”

The music starts up. “Oh fuck, oh fuck,” Chase whispers, and the words ‘you don’t have to do this, you know’ are right there on Schneep’s lips, but he can’t say it. It would be one thing if it was one friend checking on another, but it feels like it would be a manipulative thing to say considering… considering how much Henrik _wants_ Chase not to do this. It would be selfish, to put that idea in his head, wouldn’t it?

“Are you ready?” he whispers instead.

“I- I guess.”

They walk to the back, where the wedding party is gathering. Stacy’s mother is the first to walk; she ignores everyone else, but Jackie and Marvin give Chase quick hugs before lining up behind him. And then they’re starting down the aisle. Chase is latched so tightly onto his arm it almost hurts, but he doesn’t mind. It takes him out of this moment, where he’s marching the man he loves into someone else’s arms, reminds him of a sweeter time, the day when he first realized that he was in love with him. It was years ago, when they were in college.

It had been Henrik who decided that they should go to the library, which was the first thing he thought about when the loudspeaker announced that someone had called in a bomb threat. First Thought: Oh god, I brought us here; if we die, it’s my fault. Second Thought: Hey, we’re moving. Because Chase hadn’t had a First Thought at all. He’d heard the announcement and immediately grabbed Henrik’s hand and started running.

“What are you doing?”

“What do you mean ‘what am I doing?’ Getting us out of here! Come on!” Everyone else was still panicking; the announcement hadn’t even finished yet. The voice was still in the process of telling them to ‘proceed calmly to the nearest exit.’ A few people were starting to follow them, but the two of them were the only ones already at the front door.

Chase, he quickly realized, was a faster runner than him. There was a long cement staircase leading to the front door of the library, and Chase was more or less dragging him down it - he was sure he was going to trip and crack his head open and then get trampled by the crowd behind him, and he remembers thinking that if that happened, he hoped Chase was smart enough to leave him and get to safety, because - _because oh fuck, I’m in love with my friend Chase_. But before he knew it they were at the bottom, and then a safe distance from the building, and then all the way across campus, catching their breath.

Later that night, they found out that there had never been a bomb in the first place, and the student who had called in the threat had been caught and expelled. So, crisis averted, Henrik figured. There was nothing to be scared of anymore. He had plenty of time to figure out these new feelings and how he should deal with them.

One week and four days later, Chase met a girl named Stacy.

And Henrik was disappointed, but not too worried at first, because she was so obviously wrong for him. Within two months of their relationship, she was going through his closet, picking things that were “so ugly he had to get rid of them” and replacing them with clothes she bought in stores with names that Chase could barely pronounce. A few more months, and her constant “helpful suggestions” that he change his major to something “worthwhile” turned into an ultimatum: choose a ‘real’ career path or she would break up with him. Henrik had thought this would be the end, but Chase was a man in love, and Henrik woke up one day to Chase telling him he was a business major now. And then his grades fell, because of course they did - he had no passion for or understanding of business. One night, they were all hanging out and doing some homework together, and Chase was frustrated about how difficult it was. Stacy sighed. “Here, let me do it.”

“Thanks, babe. Sorry.”

“It’s fine. It’s not your fault you’re so dumb.”

It was quiet for a few seconds; Henrik was watching Chase, and Chase was watching Stacy, who kept working. Chase seemed to take her indifference as a sign that this was a totally normal thing for someone to say to their boyfriend, so he just gave a forced chuckle and changed the subject.

Henrik should’ve said something then. Should’ve taken him aside and said, ‘Hey, no one who really loved you would talk to you like that,’ be he didn’t. He knew that if Chase tried to have a real discussion about Stacy with him, he could never be impartial. He would get defensive and Chase would figure out that he was jealous. He told himself he would just wait, until Chase realized how unhealthy the relationship was, or at least until Henrik could figure out a way to intervene that didn’t risk losing his friendship.

Neither of those things ever happened. The months turned into years, years of quiet, cowardly love, of watching Stacy get even more controlling and demeaning.

But those parts of the past are too painful, so as Stacy walks down the aisle and the ceremony begins, he goes back to that day at the library. There was just something about that day that changed the way he saw Chase.

For a long time, he thought it was the way that Chase had held onto him, had kept him safe, but it was more than that. They’d been friends for years at that point - it wasn’t shocking that Chase had tried to protect him. It was something about the way he did it, how fucking fast he did it.

He hadn’t waited for any more instructions or to see how other people reacted. He knew what the right thing to do was and he did it without hesitation. _That_ was what made Henrik fall in love with Chase.

And now Henrik’s standing at the altar watching his best friend marry someone who had hurt him, who was going to _keep_ hurting him if nothing changed.

“If anyone has a reason these two should not be wed, speak now or forever hold your peace.”

Oh, shit. He actually has to do it. Well, bye forever, Chase. He steps forward. “I do. I have a reason.”

Such a small crowd shouldn’t have been capable of producing such a huge audible gasp in perfect unison.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” Jackie hisses in his ear.

Stacy isn’t so subtle. “Do you think this is funny? Because no one’s laughing,” she snaps, her voice loud enough to carry to the back row.

Henrik’s eyes stay locked on Chase, but Chase doesn’t say anything at all, just stares back at him in shock.

“Chase, listen to me, okay? I’m sorry to do this now. I know I had plenty of chances. Whenever you asked what I thought of Stacy, if I was happy for you - the answer was always no. Always. And I did not want to lie to you, but I thought that telling the truth was selfish. Because I knew I would not have the courage to tell you the whole truth… that I had feelings for you.”

There’s more gasping, which Henrik doesn’t even care about anymore. He _does_ care about the tears welling up in Chase’s eyes. When he finally speaks, his voice is hoarse, fragile. “I don’t understand, Henrik. _Is_ this a joke? Are you making fun of me?”

“What? No! Please, _please_ listen. I thought it would be wrong of me to tell you that I disliked Stacy because I had selfish reasons for doing so. And since I couldn’t tell you how I really felt, I tried to be supportive, like a good friend. If I could be nothing else to you, I wanted to be that: a good friend. But I was being a _bad_ friend. Because a good friend would have told you that you deserve better than this. You deserve someone who respects you and loves you for who you are. Even if that someone is not me.”

“Are you done?” Stacy snarls, while Chase stands, still facing Henrik, shaking his head a little, mouth open like he’s about to say something but can’t get the words out. “Because I think you’ve done an adequate job making _our_ wedding about _you_ and this pathetic little crush. I think you should go.”

Henrik has no reason to care about what she says anymore. “Chase?”

He leans towards Henrik a little, so the people watching won’t hear. “Maybe it wouldn’t be the worst idea if you waited outside, just while we work things out.”

If being kicked out of his best friend’s wedding felt like an earthquake (and it sure fucking did), Henrik is pretty sure that the realization that he’s going to have to walk back up the aisle, past every guest, to get to the doors at the opposite end of the room qualifies as a pretty nasty aftershock.

He forces himself to keep his head up, but he can’t bear to look at anyone’s face; he keeps his eyes trained straight ahead. The walk seems to take forever, but at least the humiliation is distracting. As soon as the doors shut behind him, he becomes acutely aware of how real what he’s just done is. After so much time, so many smiles, his friendship with Chase is over. He ruined it. He’s fighting back tears now, and part of him just wants to get the fuck away from there, but he doesn’t have the faintest idea where he should go. He’s also pretty sure that if he tries to drive in this emotional state he’ll end up dying in a horrific car crash, but that doesn’t sound too bad at the moment.

He sits down on the steps to try to collect himself. Makes himself take a few deep breaths. Stacy‘s going to hate him forever, but Chase might give him a second chance if he apologizes, and gives him some time, and tells him how much his friendship meant to him. Chase is a forgiver, it’s just in his nature. But how long will it take? Can they ever get back even a fraction of the closeness they once had, or would it forever be uncomfortable, a permanent awkward wall between them of unspoken feelings, regrets, and-

“So, quick update, Stacy and I did _not_ work it out,” a voice says. He looks up and Chase is just standing at the bottom of the staircase, still in his tuxedo.

“What are you doing here?”

“After you left, Stacy and I went into this little back room to talk, and I was trying to convince her that this didn’t need to be a big deal, and that we should just carry on with the ceremony, but I wanted to come get you, obviously, and she was furious.” He walks up the stairs to sit next to Henrik. “And so she was yelling and ranting, but all she kept talking about was how you interrupted us to say you’re, uh, y’know… into me. But she didn’t say anything about how you said she doesn’t really care about me or respect me, and it made me realize that you were right. So I told her I didn’t want to get married after all.”

“Holy shit, Chase.”

“Yeah, she, uh, didn’t take that super well. She started full-on screaming at me, and then she threw the flowers, and then she was coming at me - like, not hitting, really, just getting up in my face and kind of shoving me, so I found a bathroom with a door that locks, and long story short I may or may not have crawled out of a window.”

He laughs. “A pity that no one with a camera was there to capture such a wonderful moment of your beautiful wedding.”

“God. She probably thinks I’m still locked in there. How long do you think I have before someone finds me?”

“Not long.”

“Fuck. I know I have to face her eventually, but I wish it didn’t have to be in front of everyone we know.”

“Do you have your phone? And your wallet?”

“Yeah, why? Hey!” he says as Henrik grabs his hand and drags him to his feet. “What are you doing?”

“Getting us out of here.” He starts running down the stairs, still pulling Chase behind him.

“Slow down!”

But he doesn’t. He keeps going, until they’re sprinting through the parking lot to Henrik’s car and Chase is laughing the whole time. They have to let go of each other’s hands to get in the car and buckle up, but after Henrik is out of the lot and driving away, Chase reaches out again.

Henrik grabs on tight, not intending to let go until they’re far, far away.

* * *

 

**_"Baby, I didn't say my vows; so glad you were around when they said 'speak now.'" - Taylor Swift, "Speak Now"_ **


End file.
